IFA@Ooty | Film Festival | July 29, 30 and 31, 2016

The Ooty Film Festival promises to be an exciting event with a package of films supported by IFA, and other independently made films, which explore fascinating issues, tales and contexts. This film festival also offers a space for discussion with the invited filmmakers, and experts on film, who will talk about the medium and share their experiences.

Ooty Film Festival is free and open to all; we hope to see many of you in the audience!

Films supported by IFA

City of photos (Nishtha Jain | English with subtitles | 60 minutes)City Of photos explores the little known ethos of neighborhood photo studios in Indian cities, discovering entire imaginary worlds in the smallest of spaces. Desires, memories and stories all come together as a part of the personal journey into the city of photos.

Natak Jari Hai (Lalit Vachani | Hindi/English with English subtitles | 84 minutes)
A film on the New-Delhi based theatre group, Jan Natya Manch (Janam), critically explores its history and contemporary practices. Combining archival footage and documentation of contemporary performances, the film especially focuses on the Nukkad Natak (street theatre), and its ability to create innovative contexts that facilitate significant involvement on the part of its audience.

Rangbhoomi (Kamal Swaroop | Hindi/English | 82 minutes)
This film is an invocation of the semi-autobiographical play Rangbhoomi, written by Dadasaheb Phalke (April 30, 1870 - February 16, 1944) in Banaras. Dhundiraj Govind Phalke, popularly known as Dadasaheb Phalke was an Indian producer/ director/ screenwriter, widely regarded as the father of Indian Cinema. His debut film Raja Harishchandra was made in 1913 and is recognised as India's first full-length feature film. In his career, spanning 19 years, he made 95 movies and 26 short films.

Out of Thin Air (Shabani Hassanwalia and Samreen Farooqi | Hindi/English with English subtitles | 50 minutes)Out of Thin Air is the story of one of the most surreal and hostile landscapes in the world. This is the story of Ladakh, not through the postcards that tourists often see, but through the subterranean, local film movement that has taken such strong root here in the last six years, that it has become a voice of the people. Today, taxi drivers, grocery store owners, cops and monks are producers, directors, camerapersons and actors of one of the youngest and most dynamic, local film industries in the world.

The Common Task (Pallavi Paul | English | 52 mins)
[Contains graphic language]
An experimental HD video film on the Mars One project, which aims to set up the first human settlement in Mars. It is about the proposition of a one-way trip to Mars, and explores the philosophical possibilities of interplanetary travel. Woven around the stories of two applicants who want to make this journey, the film includes scientific reports, plans, charts, and personal journals, interspersed with interviews with future astronauts.

The Other Song (Saba Dewan | Hindi/Urdu/English with English subtitles | 120 minutes)
In 1935, Rasoolan bai, the well-known singer from Varanasi, recorded for the Gramaphone a thumri that she would never sing again- 'Lagat job anwa ma chot, phool gendwa na maar' (My breasts are wounded, don't throw flowers at me). A variation of her more famous song - 'Lagat Karejwa ma chot, phool gendwa na maar' ( My heart is wounded, don't throw flowers at me), the 1935 recording, never to be repeated, faded from public memory and eventually got lost. More than seventy years later the film travels through Varanasi, Lucknow and Muzzafarpur in search of the forgotten thumri.

Films by Independent Filmmakers

Sivapuranam (Arun Karthick | Tamil | 1 hour 15 minutes | 2015)
An esoteric take on young designer Shiva's obsession with the photo of a girl snapped during a mysterious encounter. Within his daily routine, he focuses obsessively on this picture of her that keeps triggering his voyeuristic impulses. Caught in a web of his own delusions, Shiva awaits a possible resolution.

Dissolve (Srinivas Mangipudi | No Dialog | 42 minutes)
An experimental film, which is a contemporary exploration of Raagmaala tradition of painting under the influence of music, it probes and questions the boundary of performance and intent. The film includes folk music performances, performances by French Graffiti Artists, Dhrupad musicians, features a Carnatic classical singer.

Blood Earth (Kush Badhwar | Oriya/ Hindi/ English/ Kui | 36 minutes | 2013)
Kucheipadar, a Khonda tribal village in Odisha, India, is a bauxite-rich block that since India's economic liberalisation has been the subject of violent conflict between Adivasis and a mining venture. The singing of songs has come to articulate creative forms and political structures that steered a resistance movement from subalternity, through solidarity and into dissolution. Blood Earth interweaves the efforts to record song, farming, village life and a political meeting to improvise a junction between voice, music, silence, sound and noise.

Carnival (Madhuja Mukherjee | No dialog | 61 minutes | 2011)
Babu returns from abroad to his home city of Kolkata due to the demise of his mother. He gets caught up in a whirl of colours, lights, crowds, music, sacrifices and ritualistic spectacles that evoke hidden emotions within him. He deals with his memories while roaming around and rediscovering his home city.